When a German VW robot killed a car worker in a tragic accident, “Terminator” devotees began to wonder if the machines were really taking over. The paranoia grew when the reporter tweeting the news was Sarah Connor – sorry, Sarah O’Connor of the FT.

The Twitter frenzy
started when Sarah O’Connor, employment correspondent at the
Financial Times, tweeted the news of a robot killing a human
being. The similarity of her name to that of the character Sarah
Connor, played by Linda Hamilton in the original Terminator
movie, wasn’t lost on the fans.

The real-life tragedy
occurred at a plant belonging to German automaker Volkswagen (VW)
in Baunatal, on Monday, where robot’s manipulator grabbed a
maintenance worker and thrust him against a metal slab, causing
fatal injuries.

The news of the VW
worker's death prompted some diehard Terminator fans to speculate
darkly that the cinematic prophecy about rise of the machines was
coming true, and that the Terminators, under the control of the
“Skynet” artificial intelligence program, would soon be roaming
the Earth out of human control.

The speculation was
fueled by the fact that in the Terminator movie franchise, the
robots start killing humans at first by accident, then
deliberately.

Others hinted that the Skynet chatter had more to do with viral
advertising at a time when the latest franchise movie, Terminator
Genisys, was hitting cinema screens worldwide.

The fans’ reaction was initially a mystery to Sarah O’Connor, who
said at first she had no idea who Sarah Connor was, or about
Skynet.

Please @sarahoconnor_ take
care of John Connor, he is our only hope now!